A Two City study of Air Quality in Vietnam

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The World Health Organisation (WHO) describes poor air quality as the largest single environmental health risk and attributes 8 million deaths annually to the consequences of exposure to air pollution. Vietnam is one of the fastest growing economies in SE Asia and, as a result, has undergone rapid urbanisation, industrialisation and population growth. This has led to the deterioration of, amongst other factors, air quality, with Vietnam being one of the most polluted countries in the world, ranked 170th out of 180 countries for air quality in a recent survey (Environmental Performance Index, Yale University, 2016). Air quality monitoring in Vietnam is patchy and many of the previously-reported studies are now quite dated. Given the rapid economic development and the growth of cities such as Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, there is a pressing need for new, up-to-date air quality measurements and a reassessment of the major sources of the observed pollution.For this study we propose to make measurements of a range of air quality indicators in the 2 largest cities in Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City in the south and Hanoi in the north in order to improve our understanding of the concentrations and sources of air pollution in these contrasting environments. Measurements will be made during both the dry and wet seasons when the prevailing winds and likely sources of pollution could be quite different. The UK groups will take a range of analytical equipment to Vietnam which will complement the existing measurements made by the Vietnam partners. These instruments will vastly improve the speciation of measurements currently available, including detailed information on the organic compounds found in both the gas and particulate phase, the latter using novel mass spectrometric detection techniques. This will provide us with significantly enhanced datasets of both gas phase and particulate species which will allow us to better identify the key pollutants for human health and the relative importance of different emissions sources in the 2 cities using various data analysis tools including positive matrix factorisation (PMF).An important component of the project will be knowledge exchange and capacity building with the Vietnamese partners. This will include the hosting of Vietnamese staff in the UK for several months to learn techniques including particle filter analysis, air sensor technology and the use of source apportionment software such as PMF.The resultant air pollution database will be the largest and most comprehensive in Vietnam to date and will serve as a valuable resource for future air quality modelling studies, the verification of emission inventories and for the design of effective abatement strategies. To disseminate our findings we will organise a workshop in Vietnam towards the end of the project to which we will invite representatives from various academic, governmental and non-governmental organisations.